In the late 1920’s through the early 1930’s Federico García Lorca was living in Spain, devoting most of his time to script-writing for the theater group, La Baraca. It was during this period that he became friends with the Chilean diplomat Carlos Morla Lynch, who allowed the young playwright/poet to stay in his home. Their friendship meant so much to Lynch that he wrote a brief memoir about his time with Lorca. In the memoir (En España con Federico García Lorca), he said of Lorca: “[He is] exuberant, vibrant, undisciplined, effervescent: a volcano in constant eruption.”
New York, November, 1929
My dear Carlos:
This letter is no more than a heartfelt embrace and an “I don’t forget you.” Surely you’ve read the second edition of my Songs with the dedication to your unforgettable daughter. These printed lines are bonds that unite me to you forever.
I’m living at Columbia University, in the heart of New York, in a splendid place near the Hudson River. I have five classes and spend the days greatly amused as if in a dream. I spent the summer in Canada with some friends and I’m now in New York, which is a city of unexpected happiness. I’ve written a lot. I have almost two books of poems and atheatrical piece. I’m relaxed and happy. That Federico of old, whom you didn’t know but I hope you’ll meet, has been reborn.
Write.
Regards to B . . . with love; to dear Carlitos [Morla Vicuna] and to Alfredo, whom I admire and remember always. Adios, Carlos. Here goes a hug with all my heart.
Federico
(My address: John Jay Hall, Columbia University, New York.)
From Federico Garcia Lorca: Selected Letters. Edited and Translated by David Gershator. New
York: New Directions, 1983.
FURTHER READING
On the Generation of ’27, the avant garde group to which Lorca belonged.
A biography of Lorca at poets.org.